Jan Holden

Biography - Jan is the area librarian for Norwich, which includes managing the development of, and service delivery from the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library and also the smaller branch libraries in the city, including libraries in Norwich Prison. Jan is a member of the Norfolk Library and Information Service management team and is also responsible for ensuring that the library service across the county strives to be inclusive and reflects the social and cultural diversity of the community. As well as being responsible for arts development in libraries, she leads the County's mobile libraries and its Home and Hospital Library Services. The Millennium Library was opened in November 2001, following a disastrous fire in 1994. Her aim is for The Millennium Library to be Britain's foremost regional public library. The Millennium Library was an early adopter of RFID.

Abstract - Norwich Central Library suffered a terrible fire in 1994. The whole building was lost. This enabled Norfolk Library and Information Service to go back to the drawing board and re-assess how they wanted to develop and deliver library services in the City and in the county. RFID was chosen to enable the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library to offer improved levels of customer care, be able to cope with vastly increased visitor and issue numbers and deliver improvements in self service. However, Norwich was the first application of RFID in a public library in the UK and naturally there were a number of issues to be coped with along the way. This presentation highlights some of the lessons learnt in an early application of RFID in the UK.